Greece : Mykonos Town

If not for the food, we would have done pretty well at Myconian Villa Collection given the beach and the weather. But it was the quest for vegetarian food that led us to new discoveries that were nothing short of an epicurean feast!

Mykonos skyline 😀Mykonos town centre is peppered with such small beaches but not all of them are made of dreams so you’ll have to take them with a grain of salt!

A shuttle bus departing at 6pm was religiously boarded everyday that snaked it’s way to Mykonos town centre (Chora, as locals call it). The 6pm shuttle suited well to our routine that included a siesta (hello! we were on a holiday!). On alighting from the bus at drop off point it was obvious that riding into town centre for dinner is quite a norm for this island. And as if a stone was flung into a flock of grain pecking sparrows, people dispersed in all directions before heading to town centre.

A five minute walk from drop off takes you into the buzzing centre.

Unless something stops you in your tracks.

“I’d like one of these, please!”Yeah, sure!

How about this one?Fiery and red! Old and…erm…not really… running.

Mykonos is called the ‘Island of Winds’.You’ll often find me fighting, facing, enjoying, annoyed, unfazed and sometimes surrendered to it!

A short walk brings you into a maze of white washed, flower adorned, drafty and shadowy alleys of the centre. The Greeks have the most gorgeous shades of blue lighting up their houses and businesses and why not, they derive inspiration from the best – the Aegean.

The rich blooms look even richer against the white walls. Somewhere in a busy part of the town.

Walking on Mykonian streets have been one of the purest delights of all.

Having said that, the first and foremost thing to do after getting off the bus is to take pleasure in a walk in the winding, immaculate, gusty lanes and by lanes. Take a peek into shop windows (the jewellery designs are VERY inspiring!). Grab a cool drink or a crepe at a cafe and watch the world go by. Pat and picture the Aegean cats. Watch the wind sweeping bougainvillea flowers and fallen leaves off the street.

‘Find’ yourself losing in the moment completely!

The Aegean cat is one of the oldest domesticated variety of cat in the world.You’ll find plenty of them in all of the Cycladic islands.

The Cycladic or the Aegean cat is considered a national treasure in Greece.Oh, I’m sure you can see that pride in the stance!

You’ll find some of the cafes abuzz with people, their chatter, music, clatter of pots and plates while there are some quaint andsedate ones somewhere in a cul-de-sac.

A well slept face, much in need of a coffee!Most cafes, bistros look street ways, for people watching, while you sip on your drinks.

Caffeinated and energised, we made it to an area called ‘little Venice’ and ‘The Windmills’ (Kato Myli in Greek).

Little Venice in Mykonos.Just as the real Venice is, it is considered a the most romantic stretch of the island.With it’s preserved medieval styled houses with wooden balconies it sure does invite you to paint the town red!The cafes along this shoreline offer a great seat to watch the sun being done for the day.

Mykonos town cityscape.If only, a lot more places looked like this!

A place for two and a sunset to remember at Little Venice.

And there we are!A little further from Little Venice, stand the Windmills completing the picture of Mykonos one travels carrying in their mind.

All the sunshine that I need!🙂

Just when I thought I’d seen the most beautiful part of Mykonos in the neon waters of Elia Beach, I saw the windmills.What a splendid sight!

The robust windmills and their dainty sails washed tawny by the setting sun. oh! and a little scoop of blue sky!!The windmills date back to 16th century.

The Windmills are a perfect place to watch sunset and also for great views of little Venice.

The warm glow of sun and cool sea breeze is exactly the kind of paradoxes I look for, travel for!

Unlike Santorini where you find everybody and their cousin, the sunset viewpoints here are far less crowded.

Sunset time in early June is around half past eight.Perfect time, if you ask me, to catch both the sunset and the dinner in time!

It’s still good to arrive a tad early to take pictures in the evening light.

There is no seating as such there and the beach is rocky/pebbly one but you can improvise to seat yourself if you wish to on a small parapet along the shoreline.

Either ways, its not going to be easy to tear yourself away from this place.Good thing you don’t have to.Take lots of pictures, spend as much time as you want to!Plenty of fish in the sea = plenty of restaurants 😀

And now, moving on to something that I’ve been waiting to talk about – Food!!

I’m not a foodie and food is not my forte but that does not imply that I do not enjoy good food. Also, being vegetarian does not help while travelling (but I’ve managed to hold fort as of now and will continue to do so) also, finding good vegetarian meal sometimes gets frustrating and at times rewarding!

Now, was the time to reap the rewards.

We found Appaloosa! It turned out to be a divine blessing, a life saver. We all know sea side places boast of their fresh sea food and not exactly a place for vegans/vegetarians to party! I mean, isn’t that why the Aegean cat loves it here?! Therefore finding a delicious vegetarian food is nothing short of a delightful gustatory blessing. : )

At Appaloosa – ethnic food, wine and cocktails!Oh and what ambiance! I loved those felt lamps that were done by a local artist whose studio we visited after the meal. Whenever I move into a big house with a big hall, I’m calling an order for those lamps. That’s right.

I loved the ‘world cuisine’ concept of the restaurant. They have a few staples from the most popular cuisines of the world. But mainly good comfort Mexican, Indian, Indonesian food!

I took some food pictures this time as we ate here three times in a row. The same meal everyday!This is Indonesian rice in the picture. It was amazing and so was their house wine and sangria.

The fact that we had the same meal for three days, in a row, shows how unadventurous we are when it comes to food AND how ‘SO OH! GOOD!’ the food was.These dishes are from Indian menu, saffron basmati rice and dal. Simple, light, well presented and tasteful – just as we like our food to be.

Clutching their jackets, scarves and bags tighter around themselves everyone came tottering back to the pick up point, so did we. The shuttle bus that left us at around half past six would take us back by eleven. This was chosen out of several options available. Since we had plenty of time for such a small island, we practically waltzed our way to watch sunset at the windmills and waltzed back to dinner before making a dash to the pick up point. The time in between was spent marvelling at the simple island life, some amazing art stores, some window shopping and a bit of sightseeing. We followed the same routine on all three days there, practically did similar things and truly had same food and yet each day was unique, beautiful and thoroughly revelled in.

Here onwards, while the story, characters and places remain the same, the images are different. Hopefully you’d find them equally refreshing. Keep scrolling down for more and little nuggets of information that might help!

Bon alor! Let’s go!

Skimming through new streets.

Unfolding of another beautiful evening!

Ample of streets for you to find an opportune moment all to yourself and to capture them!

We found an area fitting for a bollywood love song, blooms galore for hide and seek and bollywood-esq symbolism 😀

Got a closer look at the houses preserved in centuries old traditional architecture that have seen better days .

Smallish Greek style churches with their domes merging with the blue sky

A ‘remember when….’!There are A LOT of churches for an island like Mykonos.It is a local legend that there are 365 churches in Mykonos, one for each day of the year!

Out of all the churches Panagia Paraportiani in Kastro neighbourhood is the most popular one.Like most other structures in Cyclades it is white washed sans the blue dome.

Popularly known as Paraportiani Church, it is actually a complex of five churches, with it’s gate towards a side, right behind Adi.

Paraportiani literally means ‘ The church with door to one side’ . It is a very popular tourist attraction after the Windmills and Little Venice.

c) the church and it’s neighbourhood – Kastro are outworldly charming!!

While sunset at Windmills and Little Venice are too good to have an alternative, you’d be glad to watch one from here!

Although there isn’t place to seat yourself or much of standing room for that matter, you’d have to arrive at the right time and find a window and grab it if you wish to watch the sun go down!

A couple of bollywood song sequences have the Paraportiani church as their backdrop.I must say, for all things frivolous that bollywood is, their location scouting team does a good job!

In Kastro neighbourhood

Bollywood-esq area was discovered on Panachrantou Street

Another visit to the Windmills.

That is some ride. SUPER indeed!

Sometimes you’d even have live music to have ‘out-of-a-movie’ like experience.

Just how beautiful is that now!

Not in a great shape but as gorgeous!

Before we said our goodbye to Mykonos…

Best things in life are not only free, they also happen everyday!Well, in some corner of the world, for sure 😛

Would you be rather in that boat or where I am, watching it?

Not just full of beauty and charm but as quirky and artistic! My kind of place 😀

More info and advice on Mykonos

There was another landmark sight in Mykonos that we gave a miss. It is really a giant white pelican called Petros that is mascot of Mykonos. But pelicans have been my nemesis so there!

Besides sightseeing and sampling food at the island, you could take a sailing day trip to Delos a beautiful island of mythological and historical importance, that has spectacular ancient ruins. In addition to this or alternatively you could do island hopping around some (or all – your resources permitting) of the chosen Cycladic islands.

You can hire a car (if you do not need high doses of sun) or a quad bike (if more sun equals to more fun to you) incase you look forward to having more control over your schedule and want to tailor it to your fancy .

We visited Mykonos early last June which is a perfect time as the island begins to warm up but is not too hot therefore not too crowded, as you can see from the pictures.

Mykonos is also a great centre for buying artwork. By artwork I do not just mean paintings but several other kinds of arts like sculpting, weaving, blacksmithing, jewellery making and other home decor articles.

Laid back, lovely and picture perfect! While this sums up our time in Mykonos and just what we were hoping for in a holiday there’s always more for people who look for it.